


Father Time

by MaiDreamWorld



Series: Daeyoon's Journey to Parenthood [3]
Category: Golden Child (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Family, Alternate Universe - Not K-Pop Idols, Domestic Fluff, Family Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 06:21:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29755371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaiDreamWorld/pseuds/MaiDreamWorld
Summary: In which Daeyeol takes care of all 6 kids while Sungyoon leaves for a few days for work.
Relationships: Choi Sungyoon | Y/Lee Daeyeol
Series: Daeyoon's Journey to Parenthood [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2107119
Kudos: 20





	Father Time

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, it's Mai. I'm sorry that I had to delay this twice. I was going to publish this by Valentine's Day, but unfortunately, I got sick during that time and I missed a couple of days of school. Due to that, I was behind my studies and I had a little trouble catching up, but now I have and I can finally publish this.
> 
> I do know that there are a lot of plot holes and such, but please ignore them for now. I will fix them in the future when I have the time.

Daeyeol found a family photo album one day while cleaning up a shelf. Everything was normal, but as he kept flipping through the album, he realized that he was absent in most photos after the birth of the triplets. He thought he had spent quite a lot of time with them, but looking at the photos, it made him second guess himself. He knew that his residency in a hospital took a lot of his time, but he has never noticed how seemingly absent he was in the triplets and Bomin's growth. He felt disheartened from the thought and felt like a terrible parent.

“What’s wrong, Daeyeol? Why the sad frown on your face?” Sungyoon interrupts him from his thoughts.

“Do you think I’m a bad parent?” Daeyeol says, his voice cracking a little.

“Of course you’re not!” Sungyoon exclaims, his eyes widening. “What gave you that idea?”

“The photos inside the album,” Daeyeol shoves the album at Sungyoon’s face. “I’m barely in any of the photos. after the birth of the triplets.”

“Is that it?” Sungyoon giggles. “Just because you’re barely in any of the photos does not by any means mean that you’re a bad parent.”

“I know, but…”

“Dae, you know the triplets and Bomin love you as much as I do even if you aren’t with us 24/7. They probably don’t understand why, but they do know their papa loves them, even if it seems like they don’t see him for long periods,” Sungyoon reassures. “Besides, even when you are gone, they’re always so excited for when you have free time just to show you what new thing they learned.”

Daeyeol’s starts to smile a little. The thought of their kids excited to show him the new things they learn when he comes home warms his heart. “I guess you’re right, I just wish I could spend more time with them.”

⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒

“Looks like it’s your wish came true, Hyung,” Sungyoon walks into their shared bedroom.

“Why is that so?” Daeyeol slightly tilts his head.

“I have my overseas schedule from Friday to Sunday morning next week, and Yein can’t babysit the kids, so you can take care of them since you said you’ll be off those days,” Sungyoon grins.

“Me? Take care of the boys by myself?” Daeyeol’s voice cracks. “I don’t think I’ll be able to do that by myself.”

He wasn’t sure if he would be able to take care of all 6 kids himself. Before he got really busy, he had time to take care of their oldest two, but by the time the triplets had come, he couldn’t take care of them as much as he wanted to. He’s never taken care of 6 kids all by himself for more than a few hours, but even then, he would have been helped by Yein or another family member.

Sunyoon frowns. “Daeyeol, you said that you didn’t think that you spent enough time with our kids. This is a good opportunity for you to spend quality time with them.”

“That is true…,” Daeyeol hesitates, but was more than determined to spend time with their little ones to make up for the times he can’t be there. “Okay, I’ll do it.”

⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒

The week flew by in a flash. It was already Friday morning. Sungyoon had woken up earlier than he was supposed to. When he opens his eyes, he sees some light from the corner of his eyes and the sound of typing. His eyes were still half-open, but he knew it was Daeyeol on the desk typing something.

Daeyeol suddenly looks to their bed to find Sungyoon staring at him with sleepy eyes. “I’m sorry, did I wake you up?” he closes the laptop he was on.

“No,” Sungyoon’s voice was hoarse from just awakening. “I woke up by myself. What time is it?”

Daeyeol looks at his watch. “05:30.”

Sungyoon gets out of bed and hugs Daeyeol on the back. “And why are you awake at this time?”

“I was just doing some last-minute research on kid activities,” Daeyeol gets off the chair and turns to his husband to pull him to his chest, his arms wrapping around the others’ waist as he sets himself on top of Sungyoon’s hair. “I just want to spend lots of time with them, even if it’s just for two days.”

“That’s cute, I’m sure they want to spend as much time as they can with you too,” he pats the older’s back and kisses him on the cheek. “I’m going back to sleep, you should go back to sleep, too .”

“I’m fine-”

A loud cry interrupts him. Daeyeol and Sungyoon stare at each other. Was there something wrong with Bomin? It didn’t sound like the cries they would normally hear when he’s teething. They rush out of the room and into Bomin’s room. The poor baby looked pale, his cheeks were red and covered in tears. Sungyoon tries to calm him, but he doesn’t stop crying.

“My poor baby,” Sungyoon frowns, starting to get worried about his littlest one.

“I’ll call Dr. Nam,” Daeyeol goes back to their room to grab his phone and calls their pediatrician.

⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒

Almost 30 minutes had passed when the pediatrician finally came. He checked on Bomin and told the parents that Bomin just has a fever. They were relieved, they thought it was something serious, like Seungmin had gotten when he was a toddler.

“Just make sure he drinks plenty of water and rest. If his nose gets too stuffy, use this nasal spray and syringe. I also recommend getting some medicine for him so he feels better faster,” Dr. Nam says as he hands the nasal spray and syringe over to the parents. “I’ll get going now, if the fever doesn’t pass by in 5 days, visit my office or call me, got it?”

“Got it, thank you, Dr. Nam,” Daeyeol and Sungyoon both bid their farewells.

“Daeyeol, should I call in and say that I can’t make my schedule? Bomin is sick, and I don’t want you to miss some time with the boys,” Sungyoon sits down on a nearby chair in Bomin’s room as Daeyeol is trying to put Bomin back to sleep after clearing his nose.

Daeyeol doesn’t hesitate to answer. “No, you can go.. I’ll take care of Bomin and find some time to spend time with his older brothers.”

“Are you sure?” Sungyoon bites his bottom lip.

“Yes, I’m very sure,” Daeyeol kisses him on the forehead. “Let’s go to the store for now and get him some medicine before the boys wake up.”

⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒

An hour passes and Jangjun is the first one to wake up. He rubs his eyes and wakes Seungmin up. When Seungmin manages to wake up, he just sits on his bunk bed for a little before Jangjun pulls him out of bed and holds the younger’s to make their way downstairs to the kitchen for breakfast. Seungmin complains the whole time about how it was still too early but shut up when he saw his parents.

“Morning mama and papa,” they greet their parents before sitting on their chairs.

“Good morning Jangjun and Seungmin,” their parents reply.

“Mama’s schedule is this today, so papa will take care of you and your brothers until I come back,” Sungyoon reminds them.

.“Yes, papa will take care of you all, but your baby brother is sick,” Daeyeol speaks, not knowing how to tell his sons about Bomin’s sickness. “Bomin is going to need my attention first, but when he gets better or is calmed down, I’ll play with you.”

Seungmin’s smile quickly turns into a frown and his eyebrows furrow. Jangjun had once told him about how he overheard their parents talking about that one time when he was a toddler when he was sick and had to go to the hospital for a while until he got better. “Bomin’s sick? Is he okay?”

Sungyoon pats his head and reassures him. “Don’t worry Seungmin, he’ll be fine, it’s not that series. He just needs a lot of care right now.” This relieves the boy a little.

Once the two oldest finished their breakfast, they went back to their room and got ready to go to school. The triplets finally woke up and made their way downstairs. (Donghyun with the help of his papa).

⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒

Daeyeol and Sungyoon decide to walk the boys to school with their younger ones. They also thought a little bit of fresh air would be good for Bomin.

“Papa, papa,” Seungmin tugs on Daeyeol’s shirt. “Will you pick us up later?”

“Yes, I will pick you up after school,” his papa pats his head.

“Goodbye my darlings, mama will miss you,” Sungyoon bends down and kisses the two oldest sons on the forehead and gives both a big hug as soon as they make it near the entrance. “Be good for papa while mama is away, okay?”

“We’ll miss you, mama,” the two hug their mother back. “We’ll be good boys, promise.”

⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒

“Papa,” Jaehyun calls out, his head peeking through the barely open door. Daeyeol gestures to him to come in. He was now alone in Bomin’s room with his father who was changing his younger brothers’ clothes and diaper. He guesses that Bomin puked, judging by the stain on a towel that his father had over his shoulder.

“Is something wrong, Jaehyun?” Daeyeol asks. He had just gave Bomin some medicine and puked a little on the towel a few minutes later.

“No,” the boy answers. “Joochan was asking if we can play outside with you later.”

“Sure, once I get Bomin to sleep and I change shirts, I’ll join,” Daeyeol smiles at him. He knew that once he finishes changing his diaper, he’ll want to go back to sleep..

Jaehyun smiles back. He turns around, ready to take his leave, but he turns his attention back to his father and Bomin when the baby was making grabby hands at their father, babbling nonsense which their father seemed to understand and gave to Bomin. He got curious. How did his father manage to understand what Bomin had needed despite it not being comprehendible?

“Papa,” he tugs his shirt. “How did you know Bomin wanted his stuffy? Do you speak baby language?

Daeyeol couldn’t help but laugh at the question. He shakes his head after putting Bomin back into his crib. He sits cross-legged on the floor and invites Jaehyun to join him, which he did. “No, I wish I did, but that is not the case. I just knew he wanted stuffy because you and all your other siblings used to babble similarly and do the same grabby hands when you wanted your toy. I even surprised myself by getting the stuffed animal right the first time.”

“Really?” Jaehyun was suddenly interested. “I used to do it too?”

“Yes, you once even threw a toy at me because I gave you the wrong one,” Daeyeol laughs at the flashback.

Sungyoon had been dead tired from work that day, so he decided to take care of the then 18-month-old triplets. He had already put the two older children to sleep, so all he needed to do was check on their littlest ones and make sure they were asleep. He was walking up to the crib and found Jaehyun still awake. He started babbling and making grabby hands at him. The babbles sounded similar to what Jangjun and Seungmin would say when they were his age and wanted their toy, so he figured he could try to give him a stuffed animal. He picked up a fox toy and gave it to Jaehyun, but he had thrown it at him with a small shake on his head. Daeyeol was a little taken back when Jaehyun threw the toy at him, but he knew he didn’t mean it...hopefully. Not wanting to get a toy thrown at him again, he uses his brain and points at random toys until Jaehyun nods his head that it was the toy he had wanted. It turned out to be a dog plush that his grandmother had made for him.

Jaehyun was going to speak but was interrupted abruptly when Joochan burst into the room and asked why he hadn't come back yet. “Oh yeah!” Jaehyun gets up, suddenly remembering why he came upstairs. “Papa, can we go play now?”.

“Sure,” Daeyeol also gets up. He looks over to his side to see if Bomin has already fallen asleep, which he was. He picks Joochan up and puts him on his back. “Hold on tight, buddy,” he tells Joochan, to which he replies with a little giggle.

Jaehyun pouts, he also wanted to be carried by his father. “Papa, can you carry me too?”

Daeyeol smiles and picks him up too. “Wow, you’re both heavier than I anticipated,” Daeyeol says as soon as he walks down the stairs. Joochan hits him a little, a small giggle following. He sees Donghyun on the couch playing on his mother’s phone. He puts the two boys down carefully, making sure not to drop them. “I thought you were outside?” Daeyeol asks the boy, a little confused.

“Joochan left me alone!” Donghyun pouts, pointing his finger at Joochan. “We played hide and seek, and he left me while I was hiding!”

“Jaehyun was taking too long! I wanted to check on him!” Joochan defends himself, holding himself from laughing.

“You could’ve just told me!” Donghyun clenches his little fists. “You didn’t have to leave me alone like that!”

Joochan was about to say something back but was held back when their mother stopped them before things got heated. “Okay, okay, that’s enough,” Sungyoon sits Donghyun onto his lap. “Joochan, tell Donghyun you’re sorry for leaving him.”

Joochan whines before doing as told. With his arms crossed, he apologizes. “I’m sorry Dongie for leaving you and not telling you,”

“Hmph, fine I accept your apology, but don’t do it again!” Donghyun huffs.

“Now that we fixed that, mama will be leaving in really soon,” Sungyoon rubs Donghyun’s back, who along with Jaehyun and Joochan, had started hugging him tightly as soon as he said that. “Don’t worry, my babies. Mama will be back soon,” Sungyoon brings out his pinky for them to intertwine with. “I promise.”

Once they pinky promise, he moves Donghyun out of his lap and places him next to him. He shifts slightly so he could enclose himself in Daeyeol's arms. “I hope you can spend enough time with them this weekend,” Daeyeol hums as a reply before pressing his lips against his younger lovers for a quick peck. The sudden peck makes the triplets groan in disgust, whining about how it was ‘yucky’. Sungyoon just laughs at their reaction. “Oh hush, you’ll do this with your future lovers too.”

“I’m fine. No kisses on the lips for me,” Jaehyun makes an X using his fingers. “Not even cheek kisses.”

“So, you don’t want me to kiss you on the cheek anymore?” Sungyoon teases, causing the oldest of the three to retract his words. “I’m kidding, mama will give you all the kisses on the cheeks until you don’t want me to anymore.”

The scene in front of Daeyeol makes his stomach churn. It was a cute scene, but he couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. Sungyoon and their sons seem to be really close. He hoped that the two days they have together will bring them closer than ever.

Sungyoon’s phone started vibrating inside his pocket. “Oh, I think they’re here to pick me up now, goodbye, I love you all,” Sungyoon says his final goodbyes before getting his luggage and out the door.

“Are you all still up for playing, or do you want to do it later?” Daeyeol asks the boys.

“Later~,” Joochan answers. “Papa, wanna see what mama taught Joochanie on the violin last week?” His voice was full of enthusiasm. Joochan had always taken a liking to musical instruments, but it wasn’t until after he had turned four that he wanted to learn how to play them. String instruments- specifically the violin- is his favorite instrument and the one he wanted to learn how to play first. Of course, Daeyeol couldn’t say no, his precious Joochan was so excited to show him what he had learned.

“Okay, Channie,” Daeyeol nods. “Show papa what mama taught him.” Of course, Daeyeol couldn’t say no, his precious Joochan was so excited to show him what he had recently learned. As Joochan runs upstairs and gets his violin, Jaehyun suddenly curls onto his side, and Donghyun yawns, the paws of his hoodie covering his mouth. “Are you two sleepy?” he whispers. They both nod their heads.

As the boys were seemingly about to fall asleep, Joochan yells as he makes his way downstairs with his violin, causing his brothers to snap out of it. “Aish! Joochan!” Donghyun complains. “I was about to fall asleep, why are you so loud?”

“Because I am,” Joochan says, sticking his tongue out at his brother. He carefully gets his violin out and starts playing. Joochan seemed to enjoy himself as he played, and although it wasn’t the best right now, he had the potential to be a great musician in the future as he practices more. Jaehyun and Donghyun somehow found comfort in the performance and drifted back to sleep, both of them now sleeping on the side of Daeyeol. Once Joochan’s performance was over, Daeyeol gave him a quiet applause, not wanting to wake the two others up. “Wow, great job, Joochan,” Daeyeol praises. “You’ll be a great musician someday.”

“Yes! Joochan will become a great-” Joochan yawns. “A great musician.”

Daeyeol couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Are you finally sleepy?”

“No,” Joochan denies. “I just…Jaehyun and Donghyun sleeping makes me yawn,” Joochan tries to shift his excuse to his sleeping brothers.

Daeyeol doesn’t believe it, but he figures he’ll tell him when he wants to take a nap. “Well, I’ll tuck your brothers in then. I’ll be upstairs if you need me.” With that, he carefully stands up and carries the two boys carefully into their room. He lays Donghyun on his bottom bunk first and tucks him in. He does the same with Jaehyun. As soon as he finished, he saw an eye peeking through the side of the window.

“Joochan? I thought you were downstairs,” Daeyeol bends down so he was making eye contact with Joochan who was puffing his cheeks.

“I wanna sleep too…” Joochan mutters.

“Do you want me to tuck you in too?” Daeyeol offers.

Instead of answering, Joochan makes grabby hands towards his father. Daeyeol picks him up and leads him to his bed. “Have a nice nap, I love you,” Daeyeol kisses him on the forehead as he tucks him in. Joochan mutters a small ‘I love papa,’

Daeyeol decides to go to Bomin’s room and check on him once more. When he opened the door, it was quiet inside. As soon as he was closing the door, he heard Bomin starting to babble, signaling he was now awake. He opens the door again and checks his temperature. His fever dropped a significant amount since the morning. He figures that it was time for lunch. He makes his way downstairs.

He puts Bomin down onto his high chair and gives him some small pieces of watermelon to eat while he prepares some chicken soup for him and the boys. After some minor inconveniences, he finishes the soup and starts feeding Bomin who gladly eats it.

“Are you feeling a little better now, bud?” Daeyeol says as he wipes some of the soup from his lips and blows on the spoon with the soup before feeding it once more to Bomin. Bomin nods in response, leaning his head forward as if he’s asking for a kiss from his father. “No, no, no, I can’t kiss you right now, you’re sick. When you’re better I will give you all the kisses you want, just not right now.” he holds his ring finger in front of Bomin’s face who pouts in response. “Are you sulking?” Daeyeol laughs. He tries to feed Bomin some more but he refuses, turning his head away. “Aww, come on. At least eat one more bite,” Daeyeol tries to feed him again, but fails once more. “Please? Do it for papa,” he tries one more time, and this time Bomin obeys. “Okay, that’s enough for you.” he starts cleaning the table up.

He picks Bomin up from his high chair and takes him to the living room where he puts him down on the soft carpet as he finds the box of toys for him to play with. He grabs the remote and plays a kid’s show for Bomin to distract himself while he plays with his toys so that he could also eat. After getting his bowl of soup, he carefully brings it to the living room where he puts it on the table so he’s able to look after Bomin while he eats. At first, Daeyeol was able to eat without being disturbed, but when he hears whining from Bomin, he stops eating and asks him what was wrong. It turned out that he just wanted his attention, which he gladly gave him, not forgetting to eat in between.

A good 30 minutes had passed, and Daeyeol carries Bomin between his arms and decides to take him outside for a walk. Unknown to him, Donghyun wakes just a few minutes later.

As soon as he gets up, he sleepily rubs his eyes with his fists. He feels thirsty and walks around the second floor in search of his father. He first checks Bomin’s room in case he was in there, but he is nowhere to be found. He goes to his parent’s room next, still no sign of his father. “Papa?” he quietly calls out worryingly. No answer. Maybe, he was downstairs and he couldn’t hear him. He calls for his papa again, yet there was still no answer. Now he was starting to get worried. He wanted to go down the stairs, but if his father wasn’t answering him, he couldn’t go down the stairs. He didn’t want to disturb his brother’s sleep either, so he couldn’t help him either, so he brought it upon himself to make it down. He clings onto the rails desperately, afraid that he will fall down if didn’t. Slowly and carefully- with teary eyes- he makes his way down the stairs and starts looking around calling his father’s name with no reply back. “Papa, where are you?” Donghyun sobs, which eventually turns into crying. His little mind thinking about the worst-case scenarios. “Papa,” he cries out hysterically. He was scared, his father was nowhere to be found and neither was Bomin. He stays in the living room crying his eyes out until eventually the door opens- which he doesn’t notice- and reveals Daeyeol with a sleepy-looking Bomin on his shoulders.

Hearing the cries that seemed to grow louder as seconds passed, Daeyeol immediately got worried. He rushes to where the cries were coming from and finds Donghyun standing in the middle of the living room, crying his little heart out. He, with caution, puts Bomin down on the couch, using one of the pillows for him to lay on. It was a miracle that he nor his brothers had woken up from his cries.

“Why are you crying, Dongie?” Daeyeol pulls Donghyun onto his embrace, who in turn hides his face onto his shoulders while clinging onto his body. He felt Donghyun trembling, his tears were hot, and he had snot coming out of his nose. He grabs a tissue from a nearby tissue box and instructs him to blow his nose, which he complies. They stay like that until Donghyun’s body starts calming down, and as soon as he does, he takes him to the kitchen and grabs a glass of water for him to drink. Donghyun takes the water from him and starts drinking it. “Why were you crying, Dongie?” he asks once more.

“I- I thought you left Dongie, Hyunnie, and Channie alone forever,” he managed to hiccupped.

Daeyeol embraces him tighter and peppers his face with kisses. “I’m sorry Dongie, I shouldn’t have left you boys alone. I just went on a little stroll with Bomin around town. I won’t ever leave you, okay?” Daeyeol promises his little one who nods his head in response.

At that moment, something had struck him. Donghyun couldn’t make it downstairs without the help of his parents, or occasionally his older brothers. How did he manage to make it downstairs unless…

“Dongie! You made it down the stairs without help! Good job,” he exclaims.

“Hmm? Dongie made it down the stairs?” Donghyun repeats what his father had said until he was about to comprehend it. “Yes, Dongie made it by himself without no one’s help.”

“Such a brave boy you are,” he boops his nose, who in turn giggles. “Are you hungry? I made soup earlier, I can heat it and you can eat it for lunch if you want.” Instead of replying, Donghyun just nods again and his father puts him down on a chair and starts to reheat the soup. “I’ll be back, I’m just going to put Bomin down on his bed.”

With that, he makes his way back to the living room and carefully picks Bomin up, and takes him upstairs to his room. As he puts him down on his crib, he stirs a little, seemingly waking up again. Daeyeol lulls him to sleep by singing a lullaby. He remembers Sungyoon singing with Jangjun, and it worked on Bomin too. He kisses him on the head before closing the door quietly. As soon as he closed the door, he saw Jaehyun was standing in front of his bedroom door staring into nowhere.

“What are you staring at, Jaehyun?” Daeyeol says, patting him in the head.

Jaehyun looks up to his father and shakes his head. “Nothing, I’m just waking myself.”

“Are you hungry? The soup should be done about now,” Daeyeol asks with his hand reaching out for Jaehyun.

“Hmm,” Jaehyun takes hold of his father’s hand and walks down with him.

Once they reach the dining room, Daeyeol grabs 2 bowls from the kitchen and fills the bowls with the chicken soup. As Jaehyun and Donghyun were about to eat, Joochan came running downstairs screaming, “Is it time for lunch already?.”

Daeyeol couldn’t help but laugh. “Come eat, Joochan,”

Joochan of course sits on a chair immediately and waits for his father to give him his bowl. He doesn’t forget to thank him before he engulfs his lunch.

⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒

“I’m going to pick Jangjun and Seungmin soon,” Daeyeol gives the triplets a head up. “Stay here until I get back, okay?”

“No, no, no, don’t leave me, I wanna come,” Donghyun begs, clinging onto Daeyeol’s leg.

“Jaehyun, Joochan, can you stay here yourselves and help your baby brother if he wakes up while I’m gone?” Daeyeol asks while patting Donghyun on the head to comfort him. He guesses that he was still afraid after leaving them alone while he went on a stroll with Bomin. Getting nods from both Jaehyun and Joochan, he sighs and helps Donghyun put his shoes on.

“We’ll be back, don’t answer the door unless it’s papa,” Daeyeol instructs the two boys as he puts his shoes on. “Let’s go.”

The walk to Jangjun and Seungmin’s school was short and by the time they made it, the school children were already getting out of the building. They waited very little before hearing a loud “Papa!” in the distance, courtesy of Jangjun. He runs to his father and hugs him as soon as he sees him. Seungmin takes his time walking to his father and hugs him.

“You came,” Jangjun exclaims as Daeyeol takes both his and Seungmin’s backpacks.

“I kept my words, didn’t I?” Daeyeol smiles as they walk back home.

⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒

“Yah!” Jangjun shouts as soon as the door opens. “You don’t even hug your oldest brother when he gets home, how rude.”

Jangjun and Joochan had a routine between them that whenever the other is gone for long periods of time, the other gives the other a long hug before they go to one of their bedrooms to talk about how their day went.

Jaehyun and Joochan were on the couch cuddling as they watched a show together. Daeyeol had no idea how they got through their Netflix account, but they did. He puts Jangjun and Seungmin’s bags on the floor and organizes the shoes that were thrown messily on the floor.

“Jangjun-hyung!” Joochan quickly removes himself from Jaehyun and runs to hug his brother, almost tripping on a toy in the process. “I missed you.”

“I miss you too, but be careful!” Jangjun scolds him. “Watch where you’re going next time.” Joochan just giggles and hugs his older brother tighter in response. Jangjun tries to free Joochan from his side, but he doesn’t let go. Jangjun was going to scold him again, but Joochan disattaches himself from Jangjun before he could even open his mouth and drag him upstairs to his room.

“Mini, Hyunnie,” Donghyun taps his two brothers on the shoulder as they watch. “Guess what happened today.”

“You haven’t cried a single time today?” Seungmin jokes as he notices Donghyun’s slightly red eyes.

“Did you finally learn to color inside the lines?” Jaehyun adds.

“No to both. I finally went down the stairs by myself without papa’s help and what’s wrong with coloring outside the lines!” Donghyun pouts, hitting both brothers on the shoulder. He does not reply to Seungmin’s comment earlier though.

“Wow, you did it! Why were you crying though?” Seungmin asks.

“Papa went on a stroll with Bomin while we were sleeping and I couldn’t find him anywhere so I cried.” Donghyun answers.

“Bad papa!” Jaehyun teases his father who sat on the other side of the couch. “Dongie must’ve been scared.”

“I thought you would’ve been asleep. I didn’t think you’d wake up when I was gone,” Daeyeol scratches his head.

“It’s okay though. Papa gave Dongie lots of kisses to make up for it,” Donghyun grins.

⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒

Daeyeol goes through the fridge and tries to find something to cook for dinner. He looks at the contents and finds some marinated beef in the fridge. He decides they could eat kimbap tonight. He then goes to Bomin’s room and checks on him. His temperature seemed to be much better and he wasn’t, but unfortunately just as he was holding him, he pukes on his shirt again. He grabs a handkerchief and cleans both him and Bomin up. He changes his shirt first before taking him downstairs where he lets him play with his brothers.

He lets the boys play with Bomin and he does too, but eventually leaves for the kitchen to make dinner with Jangjun following him.

“Papa, can I help make dinner? Please?” Jangjun asks. He always loves watching his mother cook in the kitchen, and ever since he was 5, he’s always helped him cook whenever he had the chance. Although they were limited to washing vegetables and preparing them on the plates and bowls, it was enough to satisfy him.

“Sure,” Daeyeol replies while washing the vegetables. “Has mama taught you how to cut with knives yet?”

“No, not yet,” Jangjun shakes his head. “Will you teach me?”

“Of course,” Daeyeol smiles.

He puts some green onion on the cutting board and guides him with the knife. Jangjun put on a serious face. The whole way, but once Daeyeol praises him, he giggles and couldn’t stop smiling. Daeyeol lets him chop some onion cloves, and helps him with preparing everything from seasoning the rice to rolling the kimbap. Though it seemed quite short, Daeyeol and Jangjun had a great time making dinner together. Jangjun decides that this was his favorite moment he has with his father.

⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒

Dinner went on smoothly, although by the end of it Bomin had rice and other bits of food all over his face. Daeyeol asks Jangjun to look after his brothers so he could bathe Bomin first.

“Jaehyun, Donghyun, Joochan, it’s your turn,” Daeyeol says, coming back downstairs after bathing and dressing Bomin up.

“No, no, no, I’m fine, Jaehyun and Donghyun can go first, I’ll go last,” Joochan replies, not taking his eyes from his drawing.

Daeyeol shrugs and leaves Bomin with his brothers while he bathes Jaehyun and Donghyun next. Jangjun and Seungmin were next, and once Daeyeol finishes theirs, he calls for Joochan who he couldn’t find anywhere in the living room who he swore was there when he called Jangjun and Seungmin for a bath.

“Papa,” Jaehyun whisper-calls him. “Joochan is hiding inside a closet upstairs because he doesn’t want to take a bath. He told me not to tell you, but he’s stinky and needs a bath right now.”

“Inside a closet?” Daeyeol raises a brow. He goes up the stairs and checks the triplet’s room first. When he opens the closet door, he doesn’t find him there, so he moves onto Bomin’s room, then to Jangjun and Seungmin’s, his room, but he was nowhere to be found. The only place upstairs he could think of with a closet was this tiny supply closet near the bathroom. When he opens it, he finds Joochan inside in a funny position.

“Joochan? What are you doing inside here?” he asks, but no answers. “Don’t you want to take a bath?” Still no answer. He tries 2 more times, both times Joochan refuses to answer. “Lee Joochan,” he says, this time with a much firmer voice. “Why were you hiding the supply closet? answer me,” He sees Joochan’s lips starting to quiver as soon as he calls his full name.

Daeyeol felt bad. He’s never used a firm tone with his boys before. He grabs Joochan out of the closet, lifts him, and hugs him. “I’m sorry, Joochan.” he apologizes. “I didn’t want to use _that_ voice, but you weren’t answering. Please tell me why you were hiding inside.”

“I-” Joochan timidly starts, his eyes starting to tear up also. “I don’t want the night to end. After taking baths you’ll put us to sleep and I don’t want this day to be over yet. I didn’t spend enough time with you today.”

Daeyeol sighs. So, Joochan was afraid of bedtime. He’s heard of some kids not liking baths because they were afraid of bedtime. He guesses that Joochan might’ve felt bad that he hasn’t spent enough time with him today.

“I’ll tell you what, tomorrow we can have papa and Joochan time. Just the two of us, you can spend the whole time with me.” Daeyeol promises. He sees a smile on Joochan’s face while he nods. “Let’s take a bath now, okay?”

⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒

After bathing everyone, he starts to put them all to sleep. Youngest to oldest. To some, he read them to sleep, while some others just asked to tuck them in. Once he makes sure everyone was asleep, he goes back downstairs and starts cleaning the place up. He starts with the kitchen and then the living room. Finishing that, he finally takes a shower where he thought about what had happened that day. It wasn’t all too easy, but he loved and cherished every moment of it.

As he was making his way to the living room after changing his clothes, he found Seungmin on the couch sitting and staring at nothing.

“Minnie? Didn’t I put you to sleep?” Daeyeol asks as he sits down next to him.

“Yeah...I got up to get water and now I can’t go back to sleep,” he explains.

“Oh, do you want me to stay up with you until you fall asleep?” Daeyeol offers.

“No, papa should go to sleep soon. Minnie can just go back to sleep on his own,” Seungmin says, getting up from the couch. He feels an arm around him that prevents him from going further.

“I’ll only go to sleep after you go to sleep.” Daeyeol hugs him from the back. “Why don’t we watch a movie here until you fall asleep and I’ll carry you to your room once you do?”

“Okay, thank you, papa. I love you,” Seungmin smiles at him before he lays his head on his father’s lap.

Daeyeol plays Lilo and Stitch. Fortunately, about halfway through the movie, Seungmin falls asleep. He carefully picks Seungmin up and walks upstairs to his room.

“Goodnight, Minnie,” Daeyeol whispers after tucking and kissing him on the forehead.

He makes his way back to his room and lays down on his bed while staring at the ceiling. While he does, his phone rings on the nightstand. It was Sungyoon calling him.

“Hello! How are you, lover? How are the kids? What did you do today? Is Bomin feeling better now or is he still sick? Were the kids giving you trouble? ” Sungyoon bombards him with questions as soon as Daeyeol accepts the call.

“Slow down there, buttercup,” Daeyeol chuckles, a little overwhelmed by the questions asked.. “To start off, I’m doing great and so are the boys. Bomin is feeling better than he was this morning, and yes they were, but they’re still young and growing, so it’s fine.”

“Oh thank goodness,” Sungyoon sighs of relief. “So, did you have anything interesting happening today?”

“Well, there were actually a lot of things that happened today…” Daeyeol replies.

Daeyeol spends the night telling Sungyoon about everything that happened that day from Joochan showing him his violin skills to Donghyun crying.

⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒

Daeyeol was of course the first one to wake up- or so he thought. Making his way down, he finds Jangjun in the kitchen munching on some bread.

“Jangjun? Why are you awake at this time?” Daeyeol asks as he opens the fridge and pours himself a glass of milk.

“Oh, I wanted to wake up early so I could help you with breakfast,” Jangjun replies.

“That’s sweet,” Daeyeol smiles while ruffling Jangjun’s hair. “What do you want to make for breakfast?”

“Breakfast sandwich maybe?” Jangjun suggests.

“Okay, let’s make them breakfast then,” Daeyeol says as he takes some bread out.

They managed to make breakfast before Bomin cried awake. After telling Jangjun to wake his brothers up for breakfast, he goes inside to Bomin’s room and checks up on him. He checked his temperature first, and thankfully it seemed like he was at a normal temperature now.

“I’m glad you’re feeling much better now, buddy,” Daeyeol tells Bomin as he’s changing his diaper. Once he does, he goes downstairs and puts Bomin down on his high chair, and starts eating.

“So, what do you all want to do today?” Daeyeol asks as he takes a bite of his sandwich.

“Can we go to the park?” Seungmin suggests.

“We’ll see,” Daeyeol takes a look outside the window. It looked cloudy and gray outside. “The weather doesn’t look too well. I think it might rain today.”

“So if it rains, can we build a fort and watch movies and cuddle?” Donghyun adds.

“Sure, we can also play some board games too,” Daeyeol smiles.

⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒

As Daeyeol was cleaning the table and Bomin’s high chair up, he hears Jangjun screaming, “It’s drizzling!” in the living room. Daeyeol quickly fishes his phone out of his pockets and checks the weather app. He has yet to open his phone since last night to ask how his husband was doing on the trip. The weather app showed rainy clouds until 4:00 pm, and rainy clouds with chances of lightning and thunder up to 8:00 PM. His heart drops. Seungmin, Jaehyun, and Donghyun all had fear of lightning and thunder, but Donghyun especially was afraid of it. _This isn’t going to end well,_ Daeyeol thought.

“Boys, there might be some thunder and lightning today,” Daeyeol says as he walks into the living room. “But It will be okay. Papa is here and he’ll protect you.”

Jaehyun and Seungmin just nodded, probably understanding that now wasn’t a good time to freak out. It wouldn’t come until later on so they didn’t need to worry about it now. Donghyun on the other hand couldn’t help but feel scared, even if it wouldn’t come until later on. He runs to Daeyeol who picks him up as he hides his face onto his shoulder.

“Let’s get started on the fort now, shall we?” Daeyeol tries to change the subject while he still has Donghyun in his arms. “Go around the house and find lots of blankets, pillows, and bedsheets.”

While the boys go around the house gathering things, Daeyeol settles Donghyun down and does anything that could distract him a little while longer. Once the sound of thunder and lightning strikes, Donghyun would cry until he hyperventilates and sleeps from drowsiness. Though in theory, it would be okay if he cries to sleep, but Daeyeol wouldn't be able to bear the sight of his baby crying. He thought if he could distract him enough, he could prevent him from getting to a point where his body would get too overwhelmed.

By the time Donghyun calms down, his brothers come back with lots of pillows and blankets on hand- most of it seemingly the things Sungyoon would use when he nests. Daeyeol lets go of Donghyun and goes upstairs to get a mattress big enough to fit them all in. After putting it down, he places a blanket down on it for comfort. They all partake in helping to construct the fort, and it was overall a good time for them to use their teamwork to build it.

When they finish, they all crawl onto the fort and find a comfortable space for them to be in. They watched TV for the majority of the morning. Of course, they took breaks every 30 minutes so they don’t strain their eyes from looking at the TV for long periods. Things were going well for them. They had just finished their lunch, and they had yet to hear thunder. They were also able to distract Jaehyun, Seungmin, and Donghyun enough for them to forget about it.

When thunder roars, however, Donghyun starts to whimper. Daeyeol was quick to notice the whimper and covered his ears for him. He tells Jangjun and Joochan to cover their brothers' ears too. Once the thunder passes, they continue with their activities- playing some board games to be exact.

Lightning strikes as Jaehyun rolls for his turn. He gets startled by the loud sound and hugs the nearest person next to him, which happened to be Joochan. Lightning strikes again, and this time Donghyun starts to cry. Seungmin soon followed, and Daeyeol had his two boys- who he calls the chibiz- on his sides crying on his shirt. Jaehyun was being wrapped by Jangjun and Joochan, both trying their best to comfort him while their father deals with the crying chibiz. Daeyeol tries to comfort them by stroking them on the back.

Bomin was fast asleep on the mattress, not hearing the loud sounds that were happening around him. They continue playing their game as soon as the two calm down, but whenever lightning strikes, they will pause and continue to hug the three and comfort them until it passes.

⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒

It was already 5:00 PM when the skies started to clear. Bomin had already started to wake up from his slumber, and once he did, he looked around the fort mindlessly. He reaches out for Seungmin who takes his hand.

“Papa, Bomin’s awake,” Seungmin informs Daeyeol as they make their way to the dining table.

“Good time to wake up, bud, ” Daeyeol says as he picks Bomin up and puts him on a high chair. “We just finished making dinner.”

Jangjun insisted that he could bathe his younger siblings tonight. At first, Daeyeol said it was fine and he could do it, but Jangjun was persistent. Eventually, he gave up and let him do what he wanted. He was only letting him bathe Seungmin and the trios though. He didn’t think it would be safe to let the 7-year-old bathe the toddler.

While Jangjun bathes them, Daeyeol waits inside their rooms with Bomin beside him on the floor so he could help put on their clothes. He played for Bomin until they came back.

The night repeats itself, except this time, Seungmin was actually able to fall asleep.

⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒

The sun had yet to awaken. There was a soft jingling of keys and a click on the door that soon followed. Sungyoon had just come back from his business trip and he was more than happy to go back home. He missed his husband and his kids so much during the 2 days he was gone.

The house was still dark, no one seemed to be awake yet. He carefully made his way upstairs and opened the door slightly to his kids’ rooms. He took a peek and saw them each sleeping peacefully. He knew that there wasn’t anything to worry about, but it was still comforting to know that they were safe and content on their beds. Carefully opening the bedroom door to his and Daeyeol’s room, he made his way in. He tried taking small steps and even tried to put his luggage down without much noise. When he does, he opens the closet door and changes into something new to wear. He gets on the bed quietly and when he does, he tries to tangle himself with Daeyeol so he could be in his arms. He stared at his lovers’ face for a while.

“Are you going to keep staring at me like that or?” Daeyeol asks in a raspy voice.

“No,” Sungyoon smiles as he brings himself closer to Daeyeol.

Daeyeol slightly opens his eyes and gives a kiss on Sungyoon’s cheek, then the other cheek, and finally on his lips. He closes his eyes after that, drifting back to sleep. Sungyoon does the same and unlike the night before, he was able to sleep better with his husband holding him, and the worrisome thoughts he once had on his head disappeared.

**Author's Note:**

> If you have any concerns regarding this, please do by messaging me @Maidaydreams on Twitter.
> 
> I honestly wished I could've added more with Jaehyun, but I just had no idea. Towards the end, I kind of stopped with dialogue, not because I was lazy, but because I had no idea what to put.


End file.
